Tags

GreenHouse hub opens in Christchurch to grow budding businesses

An innovation hub supporting New Zealand's early-stage entrepreneurs and emerging businesses has opened in Christchurch’s Innovation Precinct.

The GreenHouse hub is the result of a joint partnership between Canterbury Development Corporation and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

It will support start-ups by providing a low-rent office option and the necessary technological and social infrastructure required to grow.

“Early-stage and start-up businesses are typically the generators of new ideas, products and services,” says Steven Joyce, Science and Innovation Minister.

“GreenHouse will help grow the next generation of New Zealand’s innovative firms, within an environment that will encourage innovation and collaboration.

“The Government is committed to encouraging business innovation, which is the key to improving economic productivity and prosperity in New Zealand,” he says.

The first group of businesses to be located in GreenHouse are:

Debtor Daddy: An automated credit control system

Maprogress: A provider of adventure race tracking software

Staff Buddy Ltd: A health and safety alert provider

Xeal Mobile: A website builder for SMEs

They will be located alongside the Innovation Precinct’s anchor tenants Vodafone, Kathmandu and Wynyard Group, as well as Callaghan Innovation, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, and the ICT graduate school.

Vodafone is the anchor tenant, and will set up its main South Island office in the Innovation Precinct as well as its first New Zealand based Xone incubator.

“Having these start-ups alongside larger firms with an established market presence will ensure a thriving, competitive, and knowledge-rich local innovation ecosystem within the Christchurch CBD,” Joyce says.

The Innovation Precinct covers an area of approximately 3.6 hectares in the south-east corner of the Urban Frame and is located within three city blocks bounded by Lichfield, Manchester, St Asaph, High, Tuam and Madras Streets.